I am being interviewed to see if I qualify and am interested in being in a therapeutic trial, which I learned about through the myfibromyagia study website. I got a call yesterday from the lab in Cleveland that does these studies. I got information about three of them that are currently in progress, and was asked a lot of questions. There are a lot of conditions, like, you may have to go off of some of your regular meds which are not allowed in the study. Also they told me that some of the office appointments might last up to 5 hours where you are hooked up to blood pressure machines and you have to have a lot lab work done.

If I qualify and decide to do it, they would reimburse me for my time and travel, but...I'm afraid. In two of these studies there is a placebo group -- which means you get a dummy pill with no med in it -- AND you are not allowed any other pain meds except Tylenol! I said no way to that one. The one I might be able to do is for milnicipran, a drug that's been approved in Europe and Australia for fibro, they just want to see if it raises people's blood pressure too much. I'm having a hard time deciding if I want to try this because it takes up a lot of time...but, the med is supposed to work well. Just wondered if anyone has any experience with drug studies and being a human guinea pig.

Craig

It took me long enough to find the drs I have now(who I don't trust either). You'll have a bunch of interns poking you everywhere. Sounds like one of my worst nightmares! I know that without these studies, we would'nt have good drugs but I say try them on the Drug Company Reps. Just my Humble oppinion.

I'm really not sure how I feel about these studies, somebody has to do them - right? Maybe if I actually did one I could tell them their clinical trials or studies aren't long enough.